Xbox Live Free Games With Gold in October

The announcement has arrived as to which free titles will become available with the Xbox Live Games with Gold in October. The Xbox 360 will receive two new free downloads and the Xbox One will receive a newly released indie game for free.

The game announced for the Xbox One is Chariot and will be free upon its initial release. This platformer is centered on a princess as she travels with her father’s casket in search of the perfect resting place for the late king. The casket has wheels and can be used as a moving platform to solve physics-based puzzles through 25 levels. The king’s ghost is also tied to the casket and he will voice his opinion from time to time on whether the resting places found are suitable. The king also wants jewels around his resting place, so the princess is also in charge of collecting riches along the way. The player will control the princess and a second player will control the princess’s fiancé as he helps push and pull the king’s casket. The game supports up to two players locally and online co-op is not supported. Chariot will be free when it is released and no price has been set for the game yet.

With no second game announced and Chariot replacing Super Time Force, it is safe to assume that Crimson Dragon will remain a free download on the Xbox One in the month of October. Crimson Dragon is normally priced at $19.99.

Microsoft adding Chariot as a free game, along with its Xbox Live Games with Gold in October, is a big move towards showing its commitment to independent developers and its own ID@Xbox publishing program. With the last redesign of the Xbox 360 dashboard, many indie developers saw that their games were pushed farther back from the main page and felt less support from Microsoft. The announcement of the Xbox One brought along news that the company is very supportive of indie games and Chariot is proof that smaller games will get a highly advertised release.

The first game announced for the Xbox 360 will be Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and will be available to download from October 1 until October 15. Originally released in March of 2010, this first-person shooter stood out at its release for focusing on destructible environments as players are able to break down walls and completely destroy buildings during gun fights. This also brought a higher level of difficulty as players are not able to take cover behind walls for long periods of time. The destruction makes multiplayer matches exciting as maps can look completely different towards the end of a battle. The campaign is a little short, but the multiplayer online battles are where players will spend most of their time. There is an emphasis on squad tactics as each player will choose a class and upgrade their weapons and perks. Vehicles such as tanks and assault helicopters also factor into the multiplayer battles and will offer a powerful way to destroy the enemies. Online multiplayer supports up to 24 players. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is normally priced at $19.99.

On October 16, Xbox 360 users will be able to download Darksiders II for free until the end of the month. Originally released in August of 2012, Darksiders II is an action-RPG with heavy hack-and-slash action. Players control Death as he tries to clear his brother’s name and save the humanity which has been destroyed. The open-world areas of the game are full of environmental puzzles and Death gains new abilities to help travel through to the next fight. Large-scale boss fights are the showcase of the game. Bosses that take up most of the screen, and some that are just tough, force Death to use his weapons and abilities to their full extent. The areas are huge and players will be able to find side-quests, hidden objects, and weapons as they travel. Darksiders II is normally priced at $49.99.

An active Xbox Live Gold membership is required to download these games for free during the month of October. The Xbox One games will remain free for as long as the Gold membership is active and the Xbox 360 free games will remain free after the download regardless of the current state of users Gold membership.